desert island
19
3.6
- noun
- /ˈdɛzərt ˈaɪlənd/
:
isla desierta
- If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you bring?
Now, hard left turn, let me talk about desert islands.
- Now, hard left turn, let me talk about desert islands.
- It's still an option because if we were stranded on a deserted island and somebody left a box of honey buns, they're going to help us survive.
- You're going to have to take them to a desert island or whatever, put them with a group of people whose respect they want to earn, and then they will conform to the group.
- There's a movie about a man who gets stranded on a desert island as a
- Bill, I'm sorry that if we were stranded on a desert island, I would not hesitate to kill you, eat you and use your bones as hunting tools.
Examples
-
I am all I need on a desert island.
Fiction book (2002) -
If you were stuck on a desert island and you could only bring 41 things, what would you bring?
-
We picked him up off some desert island, coming across the ocean.
-
On a desert island all these years?
-
If I had to choose three books to have with me on a desert island, no problem.
Fiction book (1993) -
If you could listen to only one CD on a on a desert island, what would it be?
-
A man stranded on a desert island, making decisions and facing trade-offs, offered a simple illustration of economic concepts.
Blog text (29) -
A chemist, physicist, and economist were stuck on a desert island.
Blog text (34) -
Dr Bernard Hazelhof said if I was on a desert island then I would have to get used to my own company... just me and the coconuts.
-
If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you miss the most?
Synonyms
281
3.7
An area surrounded by different things, like a patch of trees in a field
How Isolated
19
3.6
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'desert island' actually means 'deserted (uninhabited) island', using an archaic sense of 'desert' related to 'deserted', not the common noun 'desert' (arid region). A B1 learner who only knows 'desert' as a dry region is unlikely to derive the intended meaning from the constituents, so the phrase is not transparently compositional. Although speakers of languages that use a cognate of 'deserted' for this concept may find it easier, the meaning is generally unpredictable from the literal parts.
Etymology
The phrase desert island comes from an old use of desert, which meant 'empty' or 'abandoned', so it literally described an island with no people. That's why today desert island means 'an uninhabited island' and is the familiar image for being stranded or alone.